PIF SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SOFTBANK INVESTMENT ADVISERS

January 31, 2023

Faisal Salhab

Saud Al Sherif

Othman Almulla

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello everyone. Welcome to Royal Greens Country Club for a very special press conference as we are delighted to announce Saudi National Team golfers. Faisal Salhab, Saud Al Sherif have become the second and fifth nationals to turn professional.

Turning professional means both players can now focus on being a golfer as a career and full-time job, meaning they will earn money for every tournament should they make the cut.

They both follow friend and teammate Othman Almulla, who turned professional in 2019.

First of all, Faisal, congratulations on turning professional. Why have you chosen to turn professional, and how special is it to do it in your home country?

FAISAL SALHAB: Hello, everyone. Thank you all for coming. This is such a special moment for all of us as Saudi Nationals. We are delighted to turn professional in this tournament. We feel like this is a big step for us in our careers, and we're very proud to represent our country in a very -- this is our very, very first tournament, and we're going to try and learn as much as we can in the first tournament here, and hopefully many more to come in the future.

SAUD AL SHERIF: It's all they've been for us. For me especially, it's been a long journey. We follow the footsteps of these second and third professional golfers. Many more to come hopefully. To do it in Saudi Arabia, to do it in a home event is going to be something incredible. So we're very excited.

Q. Congratulations. I've seen you guys playing for so many years, and it's really personally a very satisfying moment to see these two guys joining Othman. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. One was can you just tell us the road that was paved by Golf Saudi coming to this decision of you two. How important was it -- is it the fact that you have a readymade pathway to play in so many events over there? How important was that in this decision to do it? And the second question is what did you guys try to learn from Othman's struggles and his journey, and what has been Othman's advice to both of you?

FAISAL SALHAB: Thank you and welcome to Saudi. Obviously, the two points that you mentioned in the question are connected. The big role that Golf Saudi has paved for us as amateurs and now professionals has given us opportunities in ways like this, that has played such a big role in our careers, how we think, how we develop as players. I'm sure my teammate can say the same thing.

Obviously Othman has been a very dear friend for such a long time, and to have him by our side is amazing. He's gone through all those phases for the last years and years and years. So he's a good example to us in this room, and we're excited to get started on our championship preseason.

Q. Did it play a role knowing you get to play in almost all the events?

SAUD AL SHERIF: So I think it was a big factor. It helped a lot. So even last year as amateurs, we got opportunities to be able to test ourselves against the best players out here, and on top of that, we saw our successor do well, which drove us to kind of with the backing and support of Golf Saudi to make that decision.

We know we can do it. They've proven that they can get to the top of the leaderboard, and I think with the full support of Golf Saudi and having each other, supporting each other, I think that really was the icing on the cake for us to make this decision.

OTHMAN ALMULLA: I think golf can be lonely sometimes. Golf can be tough. It's easy to share in successes, but finding someone to share in the heartbreak, I think the biggest thing is knowing that in an individual sport we've created a team atmosphere through this Golf Saudi partnership and through our friendship really.

Just kind of along the way, just the caliber of golf is higher, much, much higher. Some of the best golfers in the world are getting to showcase their talents on one of the biggest stages in the world, some of the biggest events, some of the nicest golf courses.

I think the advice has been to just play golf. All you can really do is learn from your experiences every day. Some days are going to be good. Some days are going to be bad. And as long as you look at this experience as not really winning or losing, but winning by gaining experience, then the next time you play you'll be one step closer.

I think the beautiful, beautiful thing about this partnership with Golf Saudi and the Asian Tour is we're getting a very unique opportunity to have some amazing opportunities to play golf on such a big stage, and it's something we hold dear, like it's a privilege, not a right to be playing professional golf, A, and, B, the opportunity from the Asian Tour and Golf Saudi in providing this amazing platform for us to say, maybe we are a very young golfing nation, but we can also showcase some unbelievable talent as well.

And it's nice to dream. That's what I tell them all the time. Who would have thought there would be one, two three professional golfers, who would have thought there a professional event in Saudi Arabia where it's mostly desert. We don't have many golf courses.

It's been a historic journey so far, and I'm a big, firm believer that Faisal and Saud are going to do some special things in golf -- at their own pace. I think that's the great thing about how Golf Saudi has supported us. They said, look, we're going to give you an amazing platform to play. We're going to support you. Grow at your own pace. We'll be here if you need help. Go out and learn, make some mistakes, come back to us, and make some better decisions.

I think it was a good thing I struggled the first three years because they don't have to struggle the first three years. Sharing some of the experiences, some of the mistakes I made I think will give them a very good jumping point to start their career and do some cool things in the sport of golf.

Q. Do you think the ladies one day, as he was saying, dream?

OTHMAN ALMULLA: I'll answer in English first. 100 percent. My wife plays golf. I don't think that would have ever been something Saudi females would have wanted to do. I mean they play other sports. But I think having professional ladies golf in Saudi Arabia and seeing the support the ladies professionals get on the European Tour we've seen from Saudi Arabia has been inspiring to us.

We have some amazing, amazing inspirational ladies from the Arab world, Ines Laklalech, Maha Haddioui, who have done some incredible things on the Ladies European Tour. I have no doubt we'll see, inshallah, very soon a Saudi girl playing on tour. We have very, very good young junior girls and some of the other girls on the Saudi international team.

We never had a Saudi international team. That was created a few years ago. That was the first time they really competed in a big event. These are important first steps that need to happen before the next step happens.

Q. First, congratulations on what you're doing here. It's been nice seeing you play, and also these two young guys are going to join the Asian Tour. It's been the same way the first time they introduced you. When you talk about a dream just ask the guys a simple question. What would be the dream three ball, say, teaming up in an Asian tournament after you turn pro? Who would be a dream three ball?

FAISAL SALHAB: We've been extremely lucky. We're very privileged that we have great players playing on the Asian Tour as well. That's a tough one. When we played with D.J., that's one. I'll take two boys. That's it. I said D.J., I'll take the two boys. That's it.

SAUD AL SHERIF: I think Tiger would be the first one and then -- hmm. Justin.

Q. It's supposed to be an easy question.

SAUD AL SHERIF: Tiger Woods and then Justin, and that's all.